Did you enjoy last Sunday’s Superbowl?
The Glazer family sure did, as they won their first trophy of the year, and will hope to have won an ‘’Owners Double’’ by May 2021.
American elite Glazer family not only own the Tampa Bay Buc’s, but they also own one of England’s most decorated soccer teams: Manchester United and they have a real shot at winning this year’s Premier League.
As the Super Bowl title was being presented last week, did you ask yourself why the first person to be handed the Vince Lombardi trophy wasn’t wearing a player’s jersey?
I happened to notice the man presenting the trophy to the winning organization, also did so by congratulating ‘’The Glazers’’ first, before even mentioning the team that won; The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
‘’On behalf of the NFL thank you to the city of Tampa for a wonderful Super Bowl week.’’
‘’Joel, to the entire Glazer family Congratulations, congratulations coach Arians to a great organisation, great players, the Vince Lombardi trophy is staying in Tampa Bay.’’
‘’Congratulations to the Glazer family and all Buc’s nation.’’
As can be seen below, Joel Glazer is handed the trophy, and then asked how they managed it over such a turbulent season.
Go to 3min 50s.
Am I the only person who was sitting there wondering why the F has the NFL emphasized first on congratulating the cash strapped owners before even mentioning the Bucs or players? – You know the athletes that actually sweat, bled and shed tears over a long and now successful year.
Coach Bruce Arians may have noticed, after thanking his family, he quickly looked at his players and said:
“But now, this really belongs to our coaching staff and our players. This is your trophy. I didn’t do a damn thing. You guys won this game, alright? You came together as a band of brothers and you made it happen, so proud of all of you. Thank you.’’
The closest thing Joel Glazer said to congratulating his team was mentioning Tom Brady. That’s it, that’s all.
Considering I write Football… ok fine Soccer articles, I’ve yet to notice something like this. It leaves me surprised how the Americans do their Football celebrations and trophy presentations.
From an outsider’s perspective, for a few moments it was as if the actual player’s efforts were shrugged off. I doubt it was meant to come off this way, but it seemed almost slightly disrespectful. Whether the coach noticed it or not is another story, but he was quick to point out whom the trophy truly belongs to.
When a soccer team is being presented a trophy, it is rightfully handed over to the team first. The owners aren’t the face of the team, the star player is. The captain is. The coach is. These are the people who are then congratulated and celebrated. – With or without fans present.
‘And that’s exactly how it should be done.’
As a fan, is it the 60 year old team owners face that is marketed to you? Or is it the star veteran, the young rookie, or the Goat himself?
When the NHL’s playoffs come to a close, Gary Bettman doesn’t hand the Stanley Cup over to the senior aged franchise owners; it goes to the team’s captain, and then the players themselves.
I don’t agree with how the NFL presented the trophy, choosing to celebrate the Financial team 1st and the Football team 2nd. The message it portrays is simply: Money can buy you anything including success, and is more important than hard work, dedication and determination, is this what we want to teach our kids and younger generations?
The Glazer family might win a 2nd title this year, but this time they won’t be touching it.
Since 2005, the Glazer family have owned a 90% stake in Manchester United, England’s domestically most successful club. On the contrary, the Glazers are far from Manchester United’s ‘’most successful owners’’ and that is said with PUN intended considering it took 1 year for the family to turn a debt free club into a team that then owed over 745 million dollars USD.
In 2019 there was a report released that detailed the club has repaid close to 1 billion dollars since 2005, and still had 552 million dollars of debt. When it comes to the fan base, they are not too fond of their club’s owners, who have not been seen at a game in close to 2 years.
The family leaves the team in control of Ed Woodward, who effectively played a big role as an advisor during the 2005 franchise takeover.
Man Utd is currently in 2nd place in the English Premier League, and are trailing league leaders Manchester City by 5 points. After 23 games, they have 13 wins, 6 ties and 4 losses.
On last week’s episode of Hot Sauce Sports: Weekly Sauce I was invited to sit down with Terry Tam and Alex the Intern, and we spoke about how Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba are the X Factors for the ‘’Red Devils’ this year.
Fernandes has scored 13 goals, and has set up 9 more from 23 league games. While Pogba might have only found the back of the net 3 times this year from 19 appearances, his overall 77% tackle success, 14 key passes and 72% dribbles succeeded make up for his lack of goal contributions.
The team has just 1 loss in their last 16 Premier League games, and let’s not forget the fact they beat Southampton 9 – 0 one week ago today. Bringing in veteran Uruguayan striker Edison Cavani has eased the pressure on Anthony Martial who has struggled this season after finishing last year’s term with 16 goals and 6 assists, he has just 4 gls and 3 assists to his name from 18 games.
One key match that can determine the outcome of this year is March 6ths Derby against current leaders Manchester City. They will also meet Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Leceister, before the end of the campaign which will prove to be the most difficult of the 15 games left.
United cannot afford to drop points, considering league leaders City are currently on a 21 game undefeated streak. Though this should come to an end shortly as City have a bunch of games coming up against lower league teams, and are notoriously known for losing games they shouldn’t. Their demise could come as soon as the next 3 games against first Tottenham, Everton and finishing with 11th placed Arsenal.
If United manage to take all 3 points from the Manchester Derby and continue playing with the form they have been over the last 2 months, with a bit of luck and peer failures, they have a real shot at winning the title.
It won’t be an easy feat to accomplish, as we cannot forget about Leicester who are digging their teeth into United’s heels, only 2 points behind them. Matt MacKenzie wrote a great article about why he thinks its Leicester’s 2nd title year, and why not?
Click on the picture below to read Matt’s article,
Everything is possible. The 2020/2021 season has been one of the most competitive years I have witnessed, only a month ago 11 points separated 1st from 11th. We’ve seen Liverpool recently drop to 4th, manager Klopp admitting a top 4 finish is now the team’s ambition. Other usual power houses Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal are almost completely out of the picture.
Even though Liverpool is only 5 points behind, it will be hard for them to bounce back with their main Cbs Matip and Van Dijk out for the rest of the season.
The league title is now basically down to both Manchester clubs and underdogs Leicester.
The Glazers could possibly have another moment to celebrate come end of May, wining an owners ‘’double’’, but this time they will be out of the limelight and in the shadows where they should be. With the actual Manchester United players and staff possibly being handed the clubs 21st Premier League title.
It would not only be a great accomplishment to the team’s owners, but also to the team itself who last won the Premier League title in 2013. With 15 games to go, only time will tell.
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Don’t forget to check out Hot Sauce Sport’s Terry Tam and Alex the Intern’s latest episode of Weekly Sauce, where they invited me to come on and speak soccer!
Thanks boys!